East San Francisco Street personifies downtown Santa Fe. Like something from an old Zorro movie, its adobe style architecture magically transports any visitor to a harmonic combination of ancient tradition (dating back more than 400 years) along with a broad collection of contemporary experience, accommodation and cuisine.

Downtown Experience

Mostly Southwestern, with some Mexican and a dash of traditional, Santa Fe's merchant goods range from pottery, jewelry, hand carved and leather goods to sculpture and painting, to upscale fashion and antiques. Hard to find shops include year-round Christmas shops, Indian pottery (uniquely new and historic), native garments and the broadest selection of turquoise jewelry anywhere.

Dining includes everything from fast food to gourmet dining. However, unique to Santa Fe are its rustic dining experiences. Street-side dining includes cafe style outdoor and off the street settings, while indoor dining takes on old world Castilian refinement, complete with ornate tile, wood and adobe surroundings. All dining is complemented with views of this ancient capital, which includes the Sangre de Christo Mountains, adobe churches and haciendas, a gothic basilica as well as a stunning and somewhat "miraculous" revival gothic chapel.

East to west, north or south, any resident or visitor will discover endless shopping, dining and fascinating sights to experience. Visitors always discover reasons to return to Santa Fe to either relive memorable experiences or simply to discover endless things to do.

Composition

Diagonal compositions are both fun and common. Most photographs that appear to be well framed with little thought, tend to be diagonal because of dominate perspective values. This particular painting is of a street scene with a straight line of shops that disappear into the left horizon line.

The viewer's eye-movement begins at that left horizon and moves to the bottom right corner of the canvas (blue arrow). This occurs as the result of the continuous running perspective line of the street curb, which is reinforced by the left to right direction indicated by the parked vehicles.

After traveling to the right, the eye then rests briefly on the stucco wall and returns towards the perspective line of the rooftops (red arrow). This is simultaneously overtaken by the top rear perspective line, which moves the viewers attention to towards the clouds and the upper left corer of the painting (green arrows). The painting is 55" by 24.5" and was completed with oil colors.

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TRANSLATE

LA ENTRADA A LA PLAZA

Since 1610, Santa Feans have considered the downtown plaza to be the beating heart of Santa Fe's. Located at San Francisco and Washington streets the square continually hosts events, outdoor concerts and community gatherings.

MEDIODIA DE JULIO

Mediodía de Julio, or Noon in July, is a painting by Tom Mallon and depicts a street scene occurring at 12 noon on a warm July day, at the corner of Water and Don Gaspar streets, in downtown Santa Fe. For the artist, this is his first memory of Santa Fe.

NUBES DE SANGRE

The subject of the painting "Nubes de Sangre" is East San Francisco Street as it closes upon the Saint Francis Basilica. The painting is a triptych composition. It starts with a deserted street scene with a lone motorcycle to the left. It then moves towards the center portrait of the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.

SANTUARIO DE GUADALUPE

Built in the late 18th century, the Santuario de Guadalupe is the oldest shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe within the United States. Located in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this landmark church was built between 1776 and 1783, in what was then a territory of Mexico.

THE LORETTO CHAPEL

The chapel was designed by French architect Antoine Mouly, using what was then described as Gothic Revival architecture. Construction of the chapel began in 1872 and was completed in 1877 (relatively modern by Santa Fe standards).

SAN MIGUEL MISSION

Religion was at the very root of early settlement in the Americas. Construction for San Miguel began in 1610, making it the very first church to be built in what is today the continental United States. This would have been a full 10 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, another religious, but far different, enterprise.

UN NUEVO DIA

The painting occupies a shallow diagonal composition. Beneath a multi-colored stream of banded clouds sits the SFSR engine with cars, the Rail Runner commuter train and the station house. The crossing signal and station lights act as vertical dividers between each anchor object.

WHY PAINT SANTA FE?

There is a lot to like about Santa Fe. The fair weather, blue skies and sandy plains all take on different tints of blue, tan and even red, as the sun shifts throughout the day.